Health and Indigenous Affairs Correspondent

Labor appointments are once again in the majority in the nation's highest court after Patrick Keane was appointed Australia's 50th High Court judge.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon announced the appointment in Canberra on Tuesday morning.

Justice Keane, who is currently Chief Justice of the Federal Court, will replace Justice Dyson Heydon who will leave the bench in March when he turns 70, the compulsory retirement age for High Court judges.

The appointment will mean Labor appointments will be in the majority on the bench for the first time since 2005.

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The Rudd government appointed the Chief Justice Robert French in 2008 and Justice Virginia Bell in February 2009.

The Gillard government appointed Justice Stephen Gageler, the former Commonwealth Solicitor General, who joined the bench last month. Justice Kenneth Hayne, Justice Susan Crennan and Justice Susan Kiefel were appointed by the Howard government.

Justice Keane, 60, has served as Chief Justice of the Federal Court since March 2010.

Prior to that he served as a judge on the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Queensland, and was Solicitor-General for Queensland for 13 years.

He is married and has three children and three grandchildren.

Justice Keane will join Justice Kiefel as the second Queenslander on the current bench of the High Court and he will be the eighth Queenslander ever to be appointed a High Court Justice.

Ms Roxon said Justice James Allsop would replace Justice Keane as Chief Justice of the Federal Court. Justice Allsop will be the fourth person appointed Chief Justice of the Federal Court since its inception. He is currently the President of the Court of Appeal, New South Wales Supreme Court, a position he has held since 2008.

Ms Roxon described Justice Keane as ''a leading intellectual'' who was ''extremely widely respected'' and who would make an ''excellent and outstanding High Court Judge''.

Ms Roxon was asked why she had not appointed a judge from South Australia, the only state to never have produced a High Court judge.

She said South Australians were right to be disappointed, but the government had consulted widely on the appointment.

''On this occasion we haven't found a person from South Australia to appoint,'' she said.

When Justice Keane joins the bench, it will contain four men and three women, two Victorians, two judges from NSW, two judges from Queensland and one from Western Australia.

George Williams, a professor of law at the University of NSW, said Justice Keane was a ''safe, secure appointment'', who would very likely make a fine High Court judge.

''He's been recognised as one of the nation's leading lawyers and constitutional lawyers for many years," Professor Williams said. ''There is no doubt about his qualifications. In fact he is someone who has been seen as a likely High Court appointment now for some years.''

Professor Williams played down the significance of Labor appointments to the court being once again in the majority.

"There is no obvious ideological overlay to any of the appointments that the government has made. In fact these two recent ones, Gageler and Keane, could have just as easily been appointed by the other side of politics.''